Titanium and titanium alloys have high strength to weight ratio, high stiffness and excellent corrosion resistance. For these reasons it is desirable to use such materials to produce load-bearing structures, such as bicycle frames. Current manufacturing methods for producing titanium/titanium alloy load bearing structures, such as bicycle frames, typically involve forming individual tubular frame components (by vacuum casting and deformation processes to produce the desired component profile) followed by assembly and welding of the various components to produce the frame. As titanium/titanium alloys have a high affinity for oxygen, high temperature processing such as welding must take place in a protective (reducing) atmosphere. Overall, this conventional approach is time-consuming, energy and labour intensive, and thus costly. As a result the use of titanium/titanium alloys has been somewhat limited to such things as aerospace, biomedical and high end sports products. The constraints associated with conventional manufacturing methodologies are impeding more widespread use of titanium and titanium alloys.
Against this background it would be desirable to offer a process for the manufacture of titanium/titanium alloy load-bearing structures that does not suffer these problems.